SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Architect's Guidebook

20

Defining Your Governance Model and Approach

By Simon Walker

Before you skip over this chapter, take a moment to remember where the real power of SharePoint 2010 lies. It provides a framework of capability that is almost unsurpassed, and a range of flexibility that is as wide as it is deep. This is the power of SharePoint, and also its biggest issue in relation to governance.

Let's say that you have read through this book and adopted all of the learning it has provided. You now have architected the perfect solution — it scales easily, it is well-managed, and the business recognizes the value it brings to the organization. Well done! But you skipped this chapter because governance just isn't for you — it is someone else's problem.

Roll the clock forward 12 months, and there you are, head in hands, wondering why your perfect SharePoint deployment is performing poorly, the end users are complaining about the capability to find information and navigate it, you have hundreds of sites but no way to tell what they do and how secure they are, there is no consistency in the use of metadata or look and feel, and your organization has relegated SharePoint 2010 to a non-enterprise toolset that is poorly adopted, and represents a risk rather than a benefit.

What happened? You didn't think about governing your SharePoint 2010 solution, and it is now out of control. In a SharePoint 2010 deployment, governance is your best friend. It will help you to control the platform over time, and ensure ...